February 19, 2022 (DeeD) – ‘The Recess,’ top-rated short film from Iranian cinema, has received nominations from the 2022 Digital Griffix Film Awards in Canada.
The Digital Griffix awards in Canada, now in 8th edition, has unveiled nominations in a number of categories for 2022 edition, according to the official announcement on the festival’s website. The first nominations published on the festival’s website include ‘The Recess’ (Navid Nikkhah-Azad) for Best Director and Best Drama, ‘Gallu’ (Kasra Tirsahar) for Best Drama and Best Cinematography, ‘Boris Saves Hollywood’ (Rod Kent, Nathan Lathroum) for Best Screenplay for feature film, ‘Haliuka /Dead Wind/’ (Pozsgai Zsolt) for Best Screenplay for feature film.
Digital Griffix film awards is an IMDB-listed international online awards competition, which takes place each three months. Winners of the year at the Digital Griffix Online Film Festival will receive an InkTip Script Listing to promote themselves and their scripts to InkTip’s entire network of producers, managers, and agents, according to the official source.
Companies, which are InkTip members, include: ABC, Anonymous Content, APA, CBS Films, HBO Films, ICM, Paradigm, Paramount Pictures, Hallmark Channel, FX, Universal, WME, Echo Lake, Zero Gravity, Bad Robot, 20th Century Fox, and many more. Producers have made more than 375 films from scripts and writers found through InkTip.
‘The Recess’, which is nominated for Best Director and Best Drama, brings the story of Sahar Khodayari (Iranian Blue Girl) to life.
The Iranian short drama has hit the record of 78 official selections in international film festivals.
Navid Nikkhah-Azad’s ‘The Recess’ has appeared in main competitions of notable film festivals such as Festival Internacioal de Cine de Lebu (Academy Awards Qualifying film festival), Festival de Cine de Alicante (recognized by Goya Awards), Santo Domingo Global Film Festival (accredited by FIAPF).
‘The Recess’ which was premiered at the 18th Oxford Film Festival, was named the Best Dramatic Short Film at the American film festival. The acclaimed short film grew its ongoing success by appearing at big name film festivals including
50th Festival de Cine de Cartagena in Spain,
75th Salerno International Film Festival in Italy,
20th Almeria International Film Festival in Spain,
49th Festival do Imaxinario (CURTAS) in Spain,
43rd Lugo Film Week in Spain,
54th Humboldt Int’l Film Festival in the U.S.
‘The Recess’ tells the story of young Sahar, who is determined to watch her favorite soccer team play for the league championship. Inspired by true events, ‘The Recess’ explores gender oppression in Iranian modern society.
Navid Nikkhah-Azad told DeeD about how he came up with the idea of ‘The Recess.’
What made me think of it as a subject for a movie, and a serious concern as a filmmaker, was that the truth about Sahar Khodayari, her life story, who she was, and what he did, was majorly disrupted by the Iranian government and the media.
Navid Nikkhah-Azad continued to say that Sahar Khodayari (Blue Girl) was made a person with no ‘past.’ So, he has decided to make ‘The Recess (El Recreo)’ about Blue Girl to give her a ‘past’ she deserved and to shout the ‘truth’ about who she was and what she did.
‘The Recess’ has grabbed 11 awards from international film festivals in Canada, USA, France, Italy, Colombia and Indonesia. The awards include:
Best Dramatic Short Film (Oxford Film Festival, 2021, USA),
Best Performance (Living Skies Student Film Festival, 2021, Canada),
Best Narrative (The Johns Hopkins Film Festival, 2021, USA),
Best Dramatic Short Film (San Francisco Frozen Film Festival, 2021, USA),
Award of Excellence (IndieFEST Film Awards, 2021, USA),
Best International Film (Progeny Short Film Festival, 2021, USA),
Best International Short Film (Festival Internacional de Cine de Dosquebradas, 2021, Colombia),
BEST OF FEST in the rest of the world (Jersey Shore Film Festival),
Best Fiction Movie (IPSMF (International Photography and Short Movie Festival), 2021, Indonesia),
Edward Snowden Award (Festival Internacional Signes de Nuit),
Honorable Mention (Sarno Film Festival, 2021, Italy).
The cast members of ‘The Recess’ include Mojan Kordi (as Sahar), Reyhaneh Nabiyan (as Tahoora), Niloofar Shokouhinia (as Aida), Ghazal Khalili (as Sara).
The 8th edition of the Digital Griffix Film Awards is set to announce the award winners of the 2022 edition on March 1.